Cider from apples

Hi all

Are there any brewers on this forum, who make cider from apples (I.e. Press the apples themselves)?

A friend and I have acquired a chopper and press and are going to give it a go.

Can anyone give us some tips. I am a beer All Grain brewer normally, so am interested in the following:

- Pasteurisation - to boil or not to boil?
- target OG and FG
- ideal bottle or storage types and priming
- fermentation temperatures
- general tips.

Thanks in advance.
Robbo

I've never pasteurised. If you're worried about it you could kill off any natural yeast with a dose of Campden.

Since last year I've only made cider with the natural yeast. From that: manky apples make better cider. They have already started to turn themselves into cider, after all! I cut out the worst bits, anything that looks like insects or worms, I don't like furry mould, but a nice squishy brown apple with white spots all over the skin will make the best cider. Break one open and have a sniff and you'll see what I mean.

8-10kg of apples will do you about a gallon depending how good the press is and how hard you want to screw it.

Natural apple juice has more than just yeast. There are bacteria too which convert the malic acid in the apples to lactic acid and give cider its distinctive taste (malolactic fermentation). You want to do the normal alcohol bit in demijohns or a large brew container, let it completely clear by itself and rack. Malolactic fermentation is an aerobic process, i.e. it needs some air and it takes a while so it happens after the alcohol bit is finished. If you store it in glass with no headspace it won't do much. If you store it in plastic containers, plastic is slightly permeable and you'll get a malolactic ferment. It'll grow a horrible looking white skin but the cider will soften and change flavour. It'll keep going and you'll either need to stabilise it or get it into glass containers to stop it.

It'll be clear but there will be plenty of residual yeast if you want to do a secondary fermentation in the bottle for fizz.

Nice one. Thanks mate.